Which episode mentioned the parts about the plasma being "immensely powerful" and the about the coolant taking the excess heat and venting it into space? -- EtaPiscium 21:52, 24 Dec 2004 (CET)

The plasma is immensely powerful -- it is the sole total energy output of a warp core, which has been mentioned to be much greater than any known modern power source numerous times. And absorbing excess heat -- that's what the word "coolant" means. -- Captain Mike K. Bartel 21:56, 24 Dec 2004 (CET)

While "Eye of the Beholder" and other "warp theory" episodes help to define what heppens in a matter/antimatter reaction and define the plasma created, the most useful reference is First Contact itself, which named it plasma coolant, clearly stated it is designed to cool the warp core, and actually showed what happens when it leaked. numerous other episodes have shown leaks from other ships versions of the coolant manifolds, which were again identified as such in both First Contact and the TNG Tech manual. None of this is speculation. -- Captain Mike K. Bartel 18:03, 25 Dec 2004 (CET)

An anon mistakenly added the following comment to the background section when it in fact belongs here. Talk amongst yerselves now. For the record, this anon's comments were in response to the paragraph "The loss of plasma coolant causing adverse effects to the warp core does not seem to apply to the USS Enterprise-E. In Star Trek: First Contact, when Data breached the primary coolant tank in main engineering, it did not appear to have any adverse affect on the engines, even though the warp core was powered. It is possible that Starfleet engineered a solution to this problem." --From Andoria with Love 12:36, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

Note that Data did NOT actually breach the entire coolant tank, but rather only one of them. Earlier in Star Trek: First Contact, Captain Picard mentions that their "...goal should be to puncture one of the plasma coolant tanks." I apologize for not having the image shown in the movie, but on the PADD that Picard is refering to, a picture of the Enterprise - E's warp core is shown, with 4 coolant tanks around it (2 top & 2 bottom).

Therefore when Data punctured ONE with his arm, this would drop the average cooling efficiency to 75%, limiting warp core opperations but not putting the ship in any danger (one could surmize this would also limit their max warp speed due to the loss of cooling efficiency).